Betty King Movies

Based on a true story, Silkwood begins and ends with Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) driving along a lonely road in 1974, heading to a meeting with a New York Times reporter to deliver evidence of negligence at the Kerr-McGee Plant in Cimarron, Oklahoma. The balance of the film flashes back to Karen's ribald private life with her lover (Kurt Russell) and her loose-living friends (Cher and Diana Scarwid). This is in contrast to her humdrum job at Kerr-McGee--or it least it was humdrum until Karen and several other employees become contaminated by radiation. The higher-ups want to sweep this incident under the rug, but Karen thinks that something's fishy, and informs the union of that fact. X-rays of the faulty fuel rods and written proof of the inadequate safety measures that caused Karen's illness are tampered with, forcing Karen to conduct her own private investigation. As she gathers evidence, Karen becomes a pariah to her boyfriend because of her obsession. She finally organizes the evidence into a briefcase, and heads off to her meeting with the Times reporter. She never makes it; the "official" report on her fatal auto accident is that Ms. Silkwood had been drinking and was under the influence of tranquilizers. Kerr-McGee was eventually forced to pay the Silkwood family an enormous settlement because of her contamination, but the full facts behind her convenient accident have never been revealed (though the filmmakers clearly indictate whom they hold responsible). Director Mike Nichols and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen surround this true story with a lively, improvisational atmosphere that gets the best out of Streep, Russell, and Cher, while providing perhaps the fullest on-screen realization of Nichols' theater-based techniques of realistic, character-centered, dialogue-driven filmmaking, as well as one of the first movie screenplays from future director Ephron. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As if losing both her husband and her money isn't enough, a woman in her mid-20s also finds herself married to a 12-year-old boy (who doesn't even like her) in the comedy Holy Matrimony. Havana (Patricia Arquette) is an aspiring showgirl who is working at a sleazy carnival while she dreams of her big break. Short on cash, Havana's boyfriend Peter (Tate Donovan) comes up with a plan; while Havana flirts with her boss, Peter will swipe his keys and lift the day's take from the carnival's safe. After grabbing the cash, Havana and Peter hightail it to Canada, where Peter figures that they can hole up with his family. However, Peter didn't always lead a life of crime; he was raised in a Hutterite community, and while Peter's Uncle Wilhelm (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and younger brother Ezechiel (Joseph Gordon Levitt) are glad to see him, they don't think much of Havana, whose brassy personality convinces them that she was the one who led Peter down the wrong path. To make peace with his family, Peter marries Havana, but not long after, he dies in a car wreck. Hutterite custom demands that when a man dies, his widow is to marry his brother; the catch in this case is that Ezechiel is only 12 years old and understandably not interested in matrimony. However, Havana agrees to the marriage, largely because Ezechiel knows where Peter stashed the earnings from the robbery and Havana does not. Havana's ignorance of Hutterite traditions and lack of enthusiasm for their austere lifestyle is a matter of no small annoyance to her, but Ezechiel shrewdly uses his knowledge about Peter's hidden bankroll to persuade Havana to lead a more righteous life. Holy Matrimony was directed by Leonard Nimoy in one of his periodic breaks from acting. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide